Internet access is becoming pervasive; wireless access is available anywhere one can use a mobile phone. However, user experience is far from uniform on these networks. The network topology and access type can greatly affect the user experience. Consider the following examples:
First, a user can connect to a corporate 100 Mbps LAN, and access Internet sites. How fast the connection “feels” to the user can be dominated by the corporate uplink to the backbone. For example, if it is a 1000 person company sharing a 384 Kbps DSL link, it will be very slow. However, if they have a 1 Mbps T1 link shared amongst 50 people, it can feel much faster.
Second, a user can setup a 11 Mbps WiFi network in their home and use a 2 Mbps cable modem to connect to the Internet. In this case, the user's experience will be dominated by the 2 Mbps cable modem that is actually shared by all the people on the block.
Finally, a user can use a 40 Kbps GPRS modem to connect to a mobile network, which has a T1 connection to the backbone. In this case, the T1 is shared amongst all of the connected users, but unless the network provider is over-provisioned, this link will be under utilized. Thus, the GPRS link will dominate the user experience.
The common thread in all of these scenarios is that disparate networks connect together to give a user access to the Internet, but the user experience is typically dominated by a single link in that topology.